Happy Independence Day to our family and friends, especially those overseas who might not experience a celebration in their current country.  We wish you were here with us – you know who you are.

This was Everett’s second July 4th.  We were reflecting on what we did for July 4th last year and discovered that neither of us could remember, which is probably a reflection of our sleep deprived state at the time.  This was also when we were packing up our house in the Cleveland for the move to Wauwatosa.  We had a lot going on.  For this July 4th we had some friends over for the kid’s festival in the afternoon at Hart Park (which is where Everett’s photo above was taken in his red, white and blue outfit), then cooked steaks on the grill and watched the Wauwatosa fireworks from behind our house.  This was followed by the Kavanaugh fireworks, which were set off by people who will not be identified in order to avoid incriminating anyone.  When I was growing up in Maryland the only legal fireworks were sparklers, so when we traveled to other states such as South Carolina we used to load up on the good stuff and bring them back to Maryland or shoot then off in Grandma’s back yard in Washington, DC.  I thought those fireworks were pretty big time until I saw the Kavanaugh show, which was truly impressive.  I have no idea where they came from, and I don’t think I want to know, but they rivaled those used at professional fireworks shows.

Everett slept through all of this, but is nonetheless experiencing his own form of independence.  He seems to go through phases every few weeks where he clings to us, then explores a bit further out on his own.  He is also developing more and more preferences about the way he wants things.  For example: Cheerios are out, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish are in; bananas are out, nectarines are in; sleeping late is something he hasn’t done in a while, and as a result our days of getting up around 6 am are in.  It is also very interesting to watch him develop new language skills, mostly receptive but from time to time he throws in a new word.  Sometimes he is mimicking us, but other times he learns something new without our help or knowledge and shares it with us when we feels the time is right.